宦官在傳統儒家文化中被視為理想政治隱患，他們只是宮中灑掃使令的奴僕，甚至不是完整意義上的「人」。面對君權獨裁之下君臣罕接的困局及政治架構中宦官地位重要，明中期士大夫如丘濬、湛若水、何瑭、貢汝成、唐樞和王畿等有意轉換思路，重新反思被視為「刑餘」的宦官，一致認為宦官具有常人一樣的善端和本心，可以因教化提升道德。從明中期開始，士大夫對宦官的新認知且變為持續的「化宦」行動，他們不僅透過表揚賢善宦官之著述或撰寫宦官教化性專書，而且利用宦官內書堂讀書制度，落實並推行宦官教化。明中後期士大夫將改善政治、影響皇帝的希望寄託於政治結構中處於重要位置、最能接近皇帝的宦官身上，曲折地施展儒家政治理想與抱負，可見中晚明士大夫得君行道的興趣並未衰退，經世之學實不因君權之高漲與心學之流行而無所表現。

In traditional Confucian culture, eunuchs were regarded as a hidden danger in politics. They were viewed as nothing more than palace servants and not even people in the complete sense of the word. In Ming dynasty politics, however, eunuchs occupied a vital position in the imperial political framework. They acted as intermediaries in communications between the emperor and those officials who had little opportunity to meet him to discuss political issues directly. As a consequence, mid-Ming scholar-officials, such as Qiu Jun 丘濬, Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水, He Tang 何瑭, Gong Rucheng 貢汝成, Tang Shu 唐 樞and Wang Ji 王畿, set about rethinking their attitudes towards eunuchs. They agreed that eunuchs could have good natures and intentions, and be morally improved through education. From the mid-Ming, this new understanding of eunuchs developed into a sustained movement to morally educate them. Scholar-officials compiled books describing good and bad examples of eunuchs in Chinese history and wrote specialist works on the moral education of eunuchs. Besides these, they also utilized the Eunuch School 內書堂 system to implement and promote the eunuchs’ moral improvement. By the late Ming, scholar-officials had placed their hopes of improving politics and influencing the emperor on eunuchs, who played a vital position in court politics and were those most able to get very close to the emperor. This paper illustrates that mid-to-late Ming dynasty scholar-officials’ strong interest in winning imperial favor had not waned in the slightest. Moreover, their interest in statecraft was not eclipsed by the popularity of Wang Yang-Ming’s 王陽明(1472-1529) Neo-Confucian idealism and the increasing power of monarchs.